German newspaper claims PM Modi declined four calls from Trump amid escalating tariff tensions

Amid escalating tensions between India and US over tariffs, a German-based newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned down four phone calls from President Donald Trump in recent weeks. 

The Trump administration is set to impose an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian imports for its continued purchase of Russian crude oil. 

Not only this, but a similar report published in Japan's Nikkei Asia pointed out the fast deteriorating ties between India and USA. The two governments had earlier called their partnership "the most consequential of the 21st century." However, the authenticity of these claims has not been verified yet. 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) claimed, "Trump has tried four times in recent weeks to get Modi on the phone. But Modi refuses to take the call." FAZ did not name any of its sources. 

New Delhi and Washington did not respond to the reports immediately. 

Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia, in its report on August 24, quoted Indian diplomatic experts, "Trump recently attempted multiple times to call Modi in search of a compromise. But the Indian leader has consistently refused to take the calls, further heightening Trump's frustration." 

It has been suggested that PM Modi's denial was linked to apprehensions that "Donald Trump could misrepresent the outcome of talks", specifically, concerned over sensitive issues like India-Pakistan. Trump has repeatedly claimed to have prevented a nuclear conflict between the two neighbors, which has been entirely rejected by the Indian Government. 

PM Modi had also declined Trump's last-minute invitation in late June, after the G20 Summit in Canada. The two couldn't meet during the summit as the US President left early. 

Trump even wanted PM Modi at the White House during his meeting with Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir, just to portray himself as the "so-called peacemaker." India strongly objected to it, seeing it as a false equivalence between "a perpetrator of terrorism and a victim of terrorism." 

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, who clashed with Trump and was subjected to an FBI raid, said that India feels "deeply aggrieved" because it was targeted with tariff and sanction threats, while there was little pressure on Russia and China. 

Shortly after the raids, Bolton wrote, "The longer India hangs out to dry, the worse the New Delhi-Washington relationship gets."